BS tough on Crime 2012 Vermont

[Her Sister]

:large


In reply to Only4RM
Maggy ?@Maggyw519 5m5 minutes ago
@Only4RM @BernieSanders from his website in 2012



https://twitter.com/BernieSanders/status/718931514696675328

BS website: scroll down

[Thinkingabout]

1. And he wants to present Hillary responsible for his votes.

[Her Sister]

3. I remember those times

Voted for the first time for Prez Clinton while I was a college student after having completed one tour of duty in the military. I remember the 1990's.

[Her Sister]

2. The Current Crime Debate Isn’t Doing Hillary Justice

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/ten-miles-square/2016/02/the_current_crime_debate_isnt059655.php

The Current Crime Debate Isn’t Doing Hillary Justice
To grasp the difference between Clinton and Sanders you have to truly understand the 1994 crime bill.
By Mark Kleiman

Long explanation before these paragraphs:

As Kevin Drum has pointed out, it’s simply not the case that the 1994 crime bill created the mass-incarceration problem; most of the damage had already been done. (In 1994, the prison-plus-jail headcount had reached 1.5 million, about triple its 1975 level, on its way to the current peak of 2.3 million.) But the crime bill certainly made the problem worse, and it contributed - directly through the money, indirectly through the rules, and even more indirectly by spreading truth in sentencing as a policy meme - to the policy of continuing to increase the size of the prison population as the crime rate collapsed. The prison-building money, and especially the truth in sentencing provision, were predictably bad policies, and the people who fought for those provisions should be held accountable for what was at best a bad mistake and at worst an act of pointless, politically-motivated cruelty.

But the people who fought for those provisions almost all had (R) behind their names. In the politics of the crime bill, the death penalty, the anti-prisoner-education provision, and especially prison-building and truth in sentencing were understood to be the conservative interests, while the VAWA, the assault weapons ban, and the “prevention” agenda were designed to appeal to liberals. (The cops provision was designed to appeal to the broader public, but the political muscle behind it came mostly from the White House and, obviously, local law enforcement.)

Again, it’s crucial to remember the political mood of 1994. The alternative to the 1994 crime bill was not a bill written by the American Civil Liberties Union - though with better presidential leadership and more adroit maneuvering from congressional progressives we might have passed something better than what actually emerged by getting something through in 1993, a year farther out from the midterm elections - but a truly appalling crime bill the Gingririchized Congress would have passed in 1995.

lot more.....

[Her Sister]

4. HILLARY CLINTON AND BERNIE SANDERS VARY LITTLE ON CRIMINAL JUSTICE REFORM

http://www.newsweek.com/hillary-clinton-bernie-sanders-criminal-justice-reform-425735

Both Clintons have said that the law—which Sanders voted for as Vermont’s senator—was a well intentioned effort aimed at combating the high levels of crime that marked the 90s. Joe Biden was one of the architects of the statute. But now, both Clintons and Sanders hold positions that are at odds with the law, and both would like to see the end of three-strikes-and-you’re-out laws, and would also like to end the disparities in sentencing between crack and powdered cocaine.

Each of the candidates favors aggressive Department of Justice oversight of police departments, as well as body cameras for police officers, and each also would like to see the end of private prisons—though Clinton got in some trouble for accepting money from the private prison industry. Both favor a 2010 law that would apply the coke-crack parity retroactively, so many prisoners could be eligible for early release. And each wants to end federal programs that encourage the militarization of police departments, as critics refer to it, and they want to require much more extensive data collection on police shootings.

In short, while both candidates were slow in their candidacy to use the phrase "Black Lives Matter," they've each made the criminal justice reform central to their campaign. Compared to areas like healthcare or college tuition, the differences are pretty slight.

[Her Sister]

5. Black Caucus yields on crime bill (plus Gingrich, remember him?)

http://articles.baltimoresun.com/1994-08-18/news/1994230118_1_black-caucus-crime-bill-clinton

August 18, 1994|By Karen Hosler | Karen Hosler,Washington Bureau of The Sun Sun staff writer JoAnna Daemmrich contributed to this article.

More...

WASHINGTON -- With the switch of at least three votes, the Congressional Black Caucus made clear yesterday that it would come to President Clinton's rescue on the crime bill.

After a meeting at the White House with Mr. Clinton, three Black Caucus members who had voted against bringing the $33 billion measure up for final House vote last week announced that they had succumbed to his appeals to save not only the crime bill but perhaps his presidency.

"He was selling his presidency, the party and the fact that we will not get a better bill than this," said Rep. Charles B. Rangel, a New York Democrat who found Mr. Clinton persuasive. "Every step forward in a positive way renews the confidence the people have in the president."

more...

The black lawmakers got almost nothing in return and will probably have to give up a lot along the way to pick up the moderate Republicans whose help is also needed to make up the eight votes by which the bill fell short last week.

In fact, some Republicans raised the ante yesterday for their support. Newt Gingrich of Georgia, the House GOP whip, said the price for picking up Republican votes could be as high as $6 billion in cuts from crime-prevention programs, many of which help black communities.

more...

[Her Sister]

6. Don't Punish Clinton, Sanders for 1994 Crime Bill

long article....

But should we treat support of the bill as evidence that neither candidate has the interests of African-Americans at heart, and that the Democrats are a hopeless vessel for those demanding racial equality?

You might draw that conclusion if you were a child, or not born yet, at the time of the bill’s inception and did not experience the political strife of the 1980s and 1990s. But context matters, as do details. The story of the 1994 crime bill and its impacts cannot be easily summed up in a few sentences.

more in between...

Everything Alexander said about what was in the crime bill is true, but incomplete. The bill was not strictly about incarceration. Also included in the $30 billion were funds aimed at crime prevention: community policing, drug treatment and so-called “midnight basketball” leagues to help keep teens out of trouble. The landmark Violence Against Women Act was established in that bill, which has helped reduce domestic violence by two-thirds, a steeper drop than the overall decline in violent crime. And the bill included an assault weapons ban, although congressional Republicans refused to renew it a decade later.

Clinton also tried to contain the Senate’s more conservative impulses, successfully narrowing the scope of its “three strikes” mandatory life sentence provision in the final version. “We shouldn't litter it up with every offense in the world,” Clinton admonished, saying it should focus on the “relatively small number of people that are wreaking heartbreak and devastation and death.”

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2016/02/22/dont_punish_clinton_sanders_for_1994_crime_bill_129729.html


The Republicans were very stubborn about what they wanted in the Crime Bill.

[Her Sister]

7. conclusion to that article:

Both of today’s Democratic candidates say that they have learned from the past as well, and have policy platforms to prove it. Should they be forever tarnished when compromise legislation doesn’t work as they had hoped?

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2016/02/22/dont_punish_clinton_sanders_for_1994_crime_bill_129729.html

[Her Sister]

8. Get Your Memes Right: The 1994 Crime Bill Didn't Create Mass Incarceration

German Lopez points out today that the 1994 crime bill wasn't responsible for mass incarceration:

States preside over the great bulk of the US justice system. So it's actually state policies that fueled mass incarceration....Federal criminal justice policy, including much of the 1994 crime law, focuses almost entirely on the federal system, particularly federal prisons....In the US, federal prisons house only about 13 percent of the overall prison population.

That's true. And there's one other thing to add to that: by 1995, when the crime bill took effect, state and federal policies had long since been committed to mass incarceration. Between 1978 and 1995 the prison population had already increased by more than 250 percent. Between 1995 and its peak in 2009, it increased only another 40 percent—and even that was due almost entirely to policies already in place.

http://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2016/02/get-your-memes-right-1994-crime-bill-didnt-create-mass-incarceration


More in link...

[pandr32]

17. Yep!

[Her Sister]

9. Bernie Sanders' Voting Records on Issue:

https://votesmart.org/candidate/key-votes/27110/bernie-sanders/20/crime#.VwmhPKQrLIU


Very clear website

[Her Sister]

10. BERNIE SANDERS' STRONG RECORD OF SUPPORTING TOUGH ON CRIME LEGISLATION

SANDERS: STRONG ON FUNDING POLICE AND ANTI-DRUG PROGRAMS

https://web.archive.org/web/20061018180921/http:/www.bernie.org/truth/crime.html

Voted for Over $650 Million to Fight Crime. [Vote #104, 4/14/94, H.AMDT.499 on H.R.4092, passed 395-25, Sanders: Y]
Voted for $200 Million for Local Police Programs. [Vote #193, 5/26/93, H.R.2244, passed 287-140, Sanders: Y]
Voted for $1.8 Billion for Police Officers and $233 Million for Crime Prevention Programs. [Vote #571, 7/25/95, H.R.2076, Sanders: Y]
Voted for $30.5 Million for Anti-Drug Program, the High Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas Program . [Vote #173, 6/20/01, H.R.2216, failed 212-216, Sanders: Y]
Voted for $175 Million for Public Housing Drug Elimination Program. [Vote #287, 7/27/01, H.R.2620, failed 197-213, Sanders: Y]
Voted for $9 Million for Anti-Drug Program, the High Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas Program. [Vote #343, 6/29/05, H.R.3058, passed 315-103, Sanders: Y]

SANDERS: STRONG ON THE COPS PROGRAM

Voted for the 1994 Crime Bill that Created the COPS Program. [Vote #416, 8/21/94, conference report on H.R.3355, Sanders: Y]
Voted for $7.5 Billion for Cops on the Beat Program . [Vote #124, 2/14/95, H.R.728, failed 196-235, Sanders: Y]
Voted for Reauthorization of COPS Program . [Vote #232, 6/17/99, H.R.1501, failed 191-233, Sanders: Y]
Voted for $300 Million Increase to $1.3 Billion Total for COPS Program . [Vote #386, 8/5/99, H.R.2670, failed 208-219, Sanders: Y]
Voted for $11.7 Million Increase for COPS Meth Seizure Program . [Vote #233, 7/17/01, H.R.2500, failed 187-227, Sanders: Y]
Voted for $106.9 Million for the COPS Program. [HR 4754, Vote #330, 7/7/04; CQ Vote Report #330, 7/7/04; Houston Chronicle, 2/3/04; New York Times, 5/25/04; R 74-148; D 131-64; I 1-0]
Voted for $200 Million for Local Law Enforcement Including $100 Million for COPS . [Vote #244, 6/14/05, H.R.2862, failed 196-230, Sanders: Y]
Voted for $10 Million Increase in Funding for COPS Program . [Vote #248, 6/14/05, H.R.2862, failed 260-168, Sanders: Y]

more info in link...

[Kath1]

11. Thank you for the information, Her Sister!

We need to let everyone know about BS.

[Her Sister]

12. Thanks Kath1!

You're welcome! Some research. Bothers me people acting like it's all HRC! When the whole thing is more complicated and many were involved.

Good night! And Congratulations on Wyoming !!!

[Cha]

13. #BSthehypocrite.. I like it when the info is out in graphics like this..

Thank you, Her Sister!

[Her Sister]

14. Podesta: Sanders Voted For Now-Controversial 1994 Crime Bill; Bragged About It As Late As 2006

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2016/04/10/podesta_sanders_voted_for_1994_crime_bill_bragged_about_it_as_late_as_2006.html
Posted on April 10, 2016

On This Week With George Stephanopoulos, Clinton campaign manager John Podesta fires back at Bernie Sanders for demanding an apology from Bill Clinton over the 1994 crime sentencing reform bill he signed.

"I think the president got a little hot," he said about Bill Clinton's confrontation with protesters about the subject this week. "[But Bernie Sanders] voted for this bill. He doesn’t regret it. He, in 2006, he campaigned for the Senate, saying I’m tough on crime."

VIDEO

[Her Sister]

15. VERMONT: High % Blacks incarcerated!

Black activists in Vermont complain they were “invisible” to Bernie Sanders

There are nearly 10 times more black people locked up in Vermont’s jails and prisons on a given day than there are free in its streets. Black Vermonters make up just 1.2 percent of the state’s general population, but 10.7 percent of its incarcerated population

http://www.salon.com/2016/02/17/black_activists_in_vermont_complain_they_were_invisible_to_bernie_sanders/

[SunSeeker]

20. Wow. Those are damn in stats for Vermont and Sanders. nt

[Her Sister]

16. Here's How Black People Actually Fare in Bernie Sanders' Home State

What does this mean? Black Vermonters make up just 1.2% of the state's general population, but 10.7% of its incarcerated population. Meaning that, proportionally, there are nearly 10 times more black people locked up in Vermont's jails and prisons on a given day than there are walking its streets.

Few in Vermont seem able to explain how this happened. The black incarceration rate grew faster than any other in the state between 1993 and 2007, before it leveled out and stayed relatively constant. But shortly before its peak, the Sentencing Project reported that Vermont had the second-highest black-to-white incarceration rate in America — topped only by Iowa, another state with a small black population.

http://mic.com/articles/124341/here-s-how-black-people-actually-fare-in-vermont-with-bernie-sanders-as-their-senator#.ykTd5i2Vd

[Tarheel_Dem]

18. K&R!

[Her Sister]

19. Sanders, now a reformer, once boasted of being tough on crime

https://www.yahoo.com/news/sanders-now-a-reformer-once-boasted-of-being-223600102.html



Sanders, now a reformer, once boasted of being tough on crime

Sanders has long spoken against the folly of putting more people in prison while ignoring the social problems that cause crime. But the senator from Vermont voted for a bill that is now widely considered by criminal justice reform advocates to epitomize the “tough on crime” approach that led to the explosion of prison populations in the 1990s.

The Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act, which later passed in a different form as the Omnibus Crime Bill of 1994 (Sanders voted for both), expanded the death penalty and offered incentives to states to lengthen prison sentences. These “truth in sentencing” laws contributed to the era of mass incarceration that Sanders now says he deplores.

“The common wisdom was to lock them up and throw away the key,” said Inimai Chettiar, director of the justice program at the Brennan Center at New York University Law School. “Sanders’ evolution is similar to that of many mainstream politicians on both sides.”

That includes Sanders’ rival Hillary Clinton, who was also a supporter of the Crime Act as first lady. It was a legislative priority of her husband’s, during a time when Democrats and Republicans were hoping to win votes by addressing constituents’ concerns about the “epidemic” of crack cocaine and violent crime. (Bill Clinton recently apologized for his role in contributing to mass incarceration.)

But Clinton began rethinking her criminal justice reform platform long before Sanders appears to have done so.

[SunSeeker]

23. The article brings up a key fact. Sanders voted for the crime bill before it had VAWA in it. nt

[sheshe2]

21. KnR

Sorry I missed this.

[Her Sister]

22. Sanders website during the 2006 campaign. He touts the crime bill!

https://web.archive.org/web/20061018180921/http:/www.bernie.org/truth/crime.html